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Andrey Rublev won the second Masters 1000 title of his career on Sunday, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final of the 2024 Madrid Open.
Auger-Aliassime opened the first set with an early break of serve, going 2-0 up. The Canadian earned a second break to extend his lead to 4-1, only for Rublev to fight back and get one back. However, the 23-year-old remained solid to seal the set without further hiccups, taking it 6-4.
The second set was far closer, with the duo holding serve back-to-back until 6-5. However, when serving to stay in the set, Auger-Aliassime faltered, handing Rublev the set, 7-5. With all to play for in the decider, the Russian got the first opening, leading 40-15 on Auger-Aliassime's second service game.
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The Canadian, though, served two big first serves to save both break points and held his serve with service winners to level things at 2-2. Quite concerningly, he then had to call the on-site physio for a short medical treatment during changeovers but held serve for 4-4.
Rublev held serve to push the physically struggling 23-year-old in to a corner, who responded with a dominant serving performance to make it 5-5. Forced to serve again to stay in the match, though, Aliassime faltered, losing the set 7-5 to hand the Russian his second Masters 1000 title. Previously, Rublev had won the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters, beating Holger Rune in the final.
En route the final, Auger-Aliassime beat the likes of Casper Ruud, Adrian Mannarino and Daniil Medvedev (retirement). The Canadian was set to face Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals, but the Italian withdrew ahead of the clash due to a hip injury.
Meanwhile, Rublev battled past the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz to reach the championship round.
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Andrey Rublev in action next at Italian Open 2024
Following their clash in the final of the 2024 Madrid Open, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Andrey Rublev are scheduled to be in action next at the Italian Open next week.
They are expected to be joined by the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Holger Rune, while World No. 2 Jannik Sinner and World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz have announced their withdrawal due to injury.
Daniil Medvedev is the defending champion in Rome, but it's not clear whether the Russian will participate, as he's also nursing an injury that made him retire in Madrid this week.
In the 2023 edition of the Italian Open, Felix Auger-Aliassime exited in the second round, losing to Alexei Popyrin. Rublev, meanwhile, progressed as far as the fourth round before falling to Yannick Hanfmann.
Following the Italian Open, the duo, along with the rest of the tour, will move to Paris for the French Open. Rublev and Auger-Aliassime had poor results at the Grand Slam last year, with the former losing in the third round (losing to Lorenzo Sonego), while Auger-Aliassime bowed out in the first round (losing to Fabio Fognini).
